Cherry Girl

Cherry Girl

Cover by Marya Heiman, Strong Image Editing http://www.strongimageediting.com/

This might be news to a lot of you because I’ve kept it pretty much under wraps, but I have a new book coming out next month and you’re looking at the cover for it.

Cherry Girl is my Blackstone Affair spin-off novel about a couple of characters you’ve already met in those books.  Neil McManus, Ethan’s number one partner in his business and a fellow British Special Forces officer from their army days, and Elaina Morrison, the receptionist at Blackstone Security International, helping Brynne with wedding plans and talking smutty romance novels with Gaby at dinner parties.  LOL

Neil and Elaina have quite a history together and you’ll get that story in Cherry Girl.  The main portion of the book is set in time about one year before the events that take place in Naked.  Ethan Blackstone is very much in this but it’s not about him.  This is Neil and Elaina’s story and I hope you’ll fall for them and spread a little of that magical Blackstone Love around and send some their way.

Look for Cherry Girl to release by the end of November.  *yeah, I know I’m being vague but it’s the best I can do*

xxoo R

#NeilLovesCherry   @Raine_Miller on Twitter

~***~

I stayed in Neil’s bed for another moment and tried to take everything in.  I was definitely a mess on the outside, but inside where my heart pounded, I was absolutely floating on cloud nine.

He loved me.  Neil really loved me, but damn if I’d allow him to kiss me again before I got clean and comfortable.  I felt utterly gross and hideous and still had trouble believing all that had just happened in the span of a very few hours.

I left his bed and headed into the bathroom.  The shower was already hot and steaming up the small space.  He’d set out his toothbrush and paste for me to use and even a soft black T-shirt with The Jimi Hendrix Experience in white letters across the front.  I knew Neil was a Hendrix fan and I’d even seen him wearing this very shirt on occasion, and yet the fact he’d picked it out for me in particular, touched me.  I reached for it and buried my face in its softness, inhaling deeply.  Neil’s scent has always been heavenly to me and I’d been addicted to it for years.  Hard to describe, but absolutely lush on my sensibilities.  Like fresh air and forest spice and pure water all combined into the perfect blend of male fragrance.  And I’d been restricted from indulging in it for most of my life.

But not anymore.

I shut the bathroom door, stripped out of my bra and knickers, and got clean in my boyfriend’s shower.  I so love the sound of that!

I’m sure I wore a ridiculous grin on my face the whole time I scrubbed.  Once I was finished in the shower and out brushing my teeth with his personal toothbrush, I still kept grinning into the mirror like an idiot, glad the door was shut and Neil couldn’t see how much of a lovesick fool I was being right now.  Pointless indeed.  He would know it the moment I stepped out anyway.  He probably already did know it.

I left the bathroom dressed in his shirt.  It came down on me to mid-thigh and I’d already decided I was keeping the thing.  Yeah, Neil’s beloved Hendrix shirt would forever belong to me.  I had absolutely no qualms about my thievery either.  I didn’t want to have to be without the scent of him once his leave from the army was over.  That meant his shirt wasn’t getting washed anytime soon.  If ever.

My inner ramblings distracted me to the point I wasn’t thinking about what might be waiting for me when I came out.  But the sight that greeted me upon my return to the bedroom in nothing but my clean skin and Neil’s shirt, was so not what I was expecting.  I stopped dead in my tracks and stared, the towel I was using to hand dry my hair slid from my grip and onto the floor with a soft thud.

Neil was waiting in the bed for me.

Holy Hell he was beautiful, sitting up against the headboard, his wide chest bare for my eyes to drink in.  The cuts and angles of his hard muscles and golden skin in contrast to the white sheets nearly made me break down again.  I could see that his nipples were hard and his gaze on me was deep with liquidity.  Mysterious and sensual with a bit of an edge.  I could only imagine what he might be thinking about right now.

My nipples were hard too, and I felt an involuntary shiver roll down my spine.

I’d seen his body before.  I knew what Neil looked like without his shirt on, and I knew very well about the washboard abs, and how they tapered into a V at his hips that made my insides a quivering mess whenever I was lucky enough to get a decent look at him.  Which wasn’t often, unfortunately.

Neil was blessed with an earthly form that screamed ‘sex god’ for a man.  But I’d never been in a position to think of  him in that way.  Those times I’d seen him had been when he was working out with Ian or roughing ’round with boys at football.  This right now was completely different.  Neil was like this for me and me alone.  He was offering himself to me—his body for my eyes to see, for my hands to touch, and for my lips to kiss.

“You dropped your towel,” he said softly, splaying a hand out over the sheet.

“I know.”  I struggled to breathe through the pounding in my chest and began to reach down for the towel.

“Leave it.”

Neil’s voice was harder, different—a command really.  I froze in step, flipping my eyes up so I could see his face and understand what he meant.

His long muscled arms were stretched out.  “Come here, beautiful,” he said softly.  “Don’t think about anything that scares you right now.  It’s just you and me here.”

Neil kept his arms out, his eyes glittering at me in a way I’d never experienced coming from him before, but thrilling and wonderful at the same time.

“Come to me.  My beautiful Cherry Girl…come over here and let me love you.”

I started walking.

~***~

Elaina Morrison ~Cherry Girl

Comments

  1. Oh Raine, you naughty, naughty girl, keeping secrets like that! But since you’re putting out another Blackstone Affair book, I guess we’ll let you get away with keeping secrets! Just don’t keep us hanging so long in the future! Looking forward to “Cherry Girl”!

  2. Chris Parravicini says

    OMG, cant wait to read the whole book! 😀
    Amazing job Raine!! Thanks for share it with us

  3. What a gorgeous cover, cannot wait to read this!!! Am sure it will be a terrific book!!

  4. Melanie Lowery says

    Beautiful Cover of the Cherry Blossoms. Cannot wait to hear more about Neil & Elaina’s Story x

  5. I am so excited to read this. You’ve made my day thank you.

  6. Excited is to put it mildly. A new book by my favorite author and another project by your side. This cover is just simply stunning and only the best for the best. Exactly the cover your words deserve, art!
    To the moon and back…xxoo
    #NeilLovesCherry

  7. Irene Rosa says

    Love the cover and the title as well. I seriously can’t wait to read all about Neil and Elaina.

  8. Michele Page says

    Sounds awesome Raine! Can’t wait ❤

  9. Dawn Strickland says

    Sounds great! Loved Neil in the Blackstone Affair. Glad we get to know more about him and his love. So excited!

  10. I am looking forward to reading this one — it sounds awesome!

  11. I can dig this…

  12. Martha Baltazar says

    Oh, Ms. Raine. Loved this. I can hardly wait to read it. As usual, this is awesome.

  13. Oh my…this sounds so GREAT!! I can’ t wait–I have already added to my goodreads!!

  14. Cant wait!!!!!!!!!

  15. I absolutely Love this!! Cannot wait until November.

  16. sherri cashman says

    I am so excited!!! This sounds like a great way to continue on with an amazing story! You have a wonderful gift, thank you for sharing it will all of us.

  17. It’s like Christmas has come early! 🙂 Am so looking forward to reading Neil & Elaina’s story!!! THANK YOU!!!

  18. Sounds amazing. Can’t wait to read another fantastic story.

  19. Mary Northington says

    OK I’m ready when is the nook available. I’m All In again

  20. Seriously, I love this author and her once in a lifetime romance books! I’m so excited for this book and for Rare and Precious Things. And the Rothvale books to come out in 2014. She can’t publish books fast enough for me!!

  21. Josée Mireault says

    I am so thrilled you cannot even begin to imagine !!!! I have miss reading your books. The 14th could not come soon enough.

  22. Ana Castañeda says

    Can’t wait, I loved it since the beginning, those colours just got into me. More from that wonderful series, and a little bit of Ethan in there, and dear Neil looks and sounds as one of the best guys in town. Thank you!

Trackbacks

  1. […] Raine Miller posted the most wonderful news and cover this week!!!!!  I LOVED Ethan and Brynne in The Blackstone Affair Series, and Raine has a spinoff novella about a couple of characters in the series.  The book is titled Cherry Girl, and part of the book is set about one year before the events that take place in Naked.  This novella will focus on Neil McManus, Ethan’s business partner, and should release the third week in November.  [source] […]

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